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Hour of Code 2019 | Roblox Coding with Lua | Free Activity
Activity Length: 5 hours | Recommended Ages: 10+ | Level: Beginner | Mac and PC only
Hour of Code is a huge event every year, and in this free guide called Hour of Code 2019 | Roblox Coding with Lua, we share a series of free activities on one of our favorite kids coding and game development platforms – Roblox Studio.
In this Hour of Code activity, CodaKid will show you how to make an awesome Obby-style game using the power of Lua programming and the powerful game creation platform Roblox Studio.
“Obby”, short for Obstacle, is a fun obstacle course-style game that the kids will create using their own creativity and a bit of Lua code. It is rated G and suitable for all ages 10+.
For those teachers and students who may have only had experience with visual block coding, please keep in mind that text-based Lua coding is more advanced, but can still be handled without much difficulty if you pay careful attention to the tutorials and double-check your work.
Important Note for Educators and Schools: The tutorials themselves are streamed from YouTube, but the assets you will need in order to run Roblox Studio editor may require your IT department whitelist a few URLs. This should only take your IT department a few minutes and instructions may be found here.
These tutorials provide a very clear explanation of everything that your students will need to do. You can either broadcast the videos from a projector or smartboard and have all of the students work on them together, or our preferred method is to have the kids use headsets and progress at their own pace.
If you have any questions or issues, please drop us a note at hello at codakid.com and we’ll do our best to help you out!
Here is a fun intro trailer of CodaKid’s free Obby tutorial that is presented in the series of instructional videos below. We sincerely hope that you enjoy them as much as we had fun making them!
Intro Video
For those of you who learn better with written instructions, our friends at Roblox have created a helpful Wiki that will walk you through the basics of creating your own Obby game.
For those who prefer step-by-step video instructions, proceed on!
CodaKid’s Roblox Studio tutorials will give you step-by-step instructions on how to set up Roblox Studio, how to master its controls, how to lay out your Obby course, and finally how to make your Obby come to life with the Lua coding language.
If you are interested in taking your coding to the next level, you can check out CodaKid’s online courses which teach students how to create real software using professional languages and tools. All CodaKid family and school subscriptions include online mentor support from our team of friendly teachers.
Step 1: How to Install and Set Up
Before we get started each student will need to set up a free Roblox account and download Roblox Studio. This Hour of Code Roblox tutorial above will go over how to download and install Roblox Studio, and explain how to access the output console which will give students debug information.
While Roblox Studio may seem daunting at first, it is actually easy to learn. Roblox Studio’s design is very user-friendly and is designed for novices who have never operated a game development engine before. Just be sure to follow our tutorial carefull, step-by-step and you will be well on your way.
For non-native English speakers, sometimes the speaking in the tutorial might go quickly. We recommend that you use the YouTube settings icon to slow down the speed of the video which should make things easier.
Step 2: Roblox Studio Editor – The Basics
Roblox Studio Editor provides young video game designers with a set of robust tools that have been used by professionals to make literally millions of dollars developing games on Roblox marketplace. But before we can launch our very own smash hit, it is important that we master the basics.
In this second Hour of Code 2018 Roblox Coding tutorial, we will teach you how to shape parts and objects to create interesting, visually pleasing game environments. Students will learn Roblox Studio functions such as Move, Rotate, Scale, and other tips to help you find your way around the editor.
We recommend that you take your time getting familiar with Roblox Studio and its many menus and buttons. Play around and create some cool environments!
Step 3: Roblox Studio Editor: Next Steps
In this third Hour of Code 2018 Roblox tutorial, we will go into more depth on Roblox Studio Editor and how you can make your environment colorful and exciting. We will also teach you how to create a variety of differently shaped parts and how to apply different materials and properties to the world you are building.
One key takeaway from this video is in-depth instruction on how to make parts transparent and how to lock obstacles in place so that your map can function correctly.
Again, we recommend that you spend some time getting comfortable with the commands and functions that we teach here, as they will allow you to get creative and create a completely customized Obby.
Step 4: Lua Coding Basics
This fourth Hour of Code 2018 Roblox tutorial by far the longest of the series, but it’s also the most fun!
In order to make your Obby come to life, you will need to learn basic Lua scripting.
Lua is a powerful scripting language that has been used to make thousands of popular games and apps and it is increasingly popular in video game development. As you’ll see from the list, it has also been used to make powerful applications by software companies such as Adobe.
One of the coolest features of Roblox Studio is that it comes with a native, user-friendly Lua text editor that will allow you to code awesome games in no time!
In this tutorial we cover spawn location, obstacle “kill blocks” (this sounds bad but it isn’t!), and how to add scripts to game objects. The “kill block” is a type of Obstacle that takes the player’s health to zero when touched and is a fundamental part of any Obby course.
We also hope that you like our breakout video, which provides a fun, animated explanation of a coding concept called a Function. You need these to make your Obby come to life!
Step 5: Play!
Now that you’ve finished developing the first part of your Obby, it is time to test it and play it!
The good news is that all that you have to do is click Play and you should be on your way!
If there are some components that you’d like to change, some blocks you’d like to move, or some more jumps you’ll like to add, you can always go back into the Editor and make changes as you see fit.
You may need to watch a few of the tutorials over again for a refresher on how to perform some of these actions, but with a little patience you’ll be able to develop an Obby that you can play with friends and family.
Conclusion
We hope that you’ve enjoyed this tutorial and that it has shown you how fun and easy it can be to make your game game from the ground up using code.
If you are interested in learning how to make other cool games on Roblox, we encourage you to check out CodaKid and we’ll show you how to make Tycoon games, Dodgeball games, Prop Hunts, Racing courses, Adventure Maps, and more!
We also teach course on Minecraft Modding with Java, App Development with JavaScript, Game Programming with Python, Web Development with HTML/CSS, Drone Programming, and more!
What’s unique about our award-winning online kids coding platform is that we include messaging and screen share support from a team of professional engineers and game designers.
This means that if you or your students ever get stuck you can just reach out to us through our learning platform and connect with a friendly teacher who can help you or your student get back on track.
Before we wrap up, we wanted to give a special shout out to the Roblox product development team. CodaKid was proud to release our first online Roblox Lua coding course in 2017, and we are most appreciative of the help and support they gave us during development.
We sincerely hope that you enjoyed our Hour of Code 2019 | Roblox Coding with Lua tutorial. If you have any questions or comments, please use the comments section below! We’d love to hear from you!
Code on,
The CodaKid Team
